


Shoot the Messenger

by Misos



Category: Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (Anime 2014)
Genre: M/M, the dialogue is directly from the anime basically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 21:47:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8506741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misos/pseuds/Misos
Summary: Never tell Gilgamesh that his boyfriend is dead.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I needed to write something about Kotogil. I care about them too much. I'm not sure this fic makes sense. Does it make sense?  
> This particular idea came from noticing Gilgamesh's uncharacteristically solemn expression when Shinji informs him Kirei is dead in UBW.

Gilgamesh could not have lived ten years as an ordinary citizen of a dull, streamlined world without entertainment. Following the war, he had taken up numerous idle occupations to stave off the crushing boredom that threatened to consume him.

Fashion – he had started with that. It was amusing to see what the “modern” world considered in good taste, and he did love to accentuate his beauty. He had to admit there was more variety than there had been in his time, and catching up had kept him occupied for a while. Kotomine’s grim and unamused reactions to whatever glorious garment he’d decided on for the day had been hilarious as well.

He’d taken up music. He tried everything from piano to harp to singing. Kotomine had told him to stop making so much noise about a thousand times, but Gilgamesh never listened until the day he finally bored of that too.

Art! That had been amusing too. He’d driven Kotomine into debt with all the genuine gold paint he’d bought, but it had been worth it to create such masterpieces. And after all, even if beauty was not enough value in and of itself, anything created by the legendary Gilgamesh would surely sell for a fortune. In the biggest humiliation of his life, it turned out no one believed that he _was_ Gilgamesh, and he had just narrowly escaped a mental hospital, but that was irrelevant.

In the end, all that was still nowhere near enough, for what was most entertaining of all turned out to be Kotomine himself.

It had started out as a joke, just another way to get under his skin. Whenever the mood took him and he felt like walking around unclothed, Kotomine had seemed most uncomfortable. Gilgamesh had instantly taken advantage of that by doing it more often, the situation escalating until the day when Kotomine completely exceeded his expectations. He really was learning how to pursue pleasure.

Gilgamesh had not wanted for entertainment after that.

Now, did he love Kotomine? Absolutely not. Gilgamesh knew what love felt like. Love was what he felt for Saber. He wanted to destroy her pristine soul utterly until it was beyond salvaging, and he wanted to be the only one to do it. He wanted to wreck her and leave afterwards, to make himself have a bigger impact on her story than any other – he'd give it an ending.

But with Kotomine, it was a different kind of affection. Not love. It wasn’t friendship, either. Only one person could ever be Gilgamesh’s friend. It was something else entirely. Something unique. He didn't want to destroy Kotomine. He wanted to _build_ him, to watch him finally attain true joy, whatever it took. He was proud when he saw how he'd shaped the man, making him so much happier than he'd been before they met.

"Love" meant destruction, and to Kotomine, Gilgamesh wished to do the exact opposite.

– – –

Gilgamesh ambled through the forest at a luxurious pace, dusting off his coat as he went. It had nearly been torn. How troublesome…

Ah, and speaking of troublesome, there was the feeble Matou child huddled by a tree, by some miracle even more pathetic than his uncle. Truly unbelievable! And he dared to call himself Gilgamesh’s _Master_. A total lie. Gilgamesh would never allow him to accept the title. His _true_ Master was elsewhere and far more worthy to be called such.

As he approached, Shinji leapt to his feet, and Gilgamesh could now see there was blood staining his shoulder. “You!” he exclaimed in fury.

Gilgamesh would have impaled him for speaking like that to a king if doing so wouldn’t have interfered with the larger plan. “You are injured,” he observed, feigning as much interest as he could – very little. “I see that you have taken an active role, Shinji.” _And what a surprise. Kariya truly was more of a man than you._

“Whose fault do you think _that_ is?!” Shinji snarled, limping up to him. He was clearly _trying_ to be threatening, and it was the funniest thing Gilgamesh had seen since the day he ran into Kotomine’s daughter. “I got stabbed by Lancer – because _you’re_ such a useless dumbass!”

Gilgamesh had never swallowed so much pride before in his life as he neglected to do anything but calmly conclude: “So…that is why that girl was still alive…” He couldn’t help but wonder what Kotomine had done during all this. Laughed at the carnage? Probably. He smirked at the thought. But there was a feeling welling inside him – a feeling completely alien to the King of Heroes. _Fear_. “What of Kotomine?” He managed to sound as bored as ever.

Shinji had no grace. He had no sensitivity. “DEAD AND _GONE_ ,” he spat out in an instant. He continued, ranting the most insulting lies, but Gilgamesh could no longer stand to listen.

Kotomine Kirei was dead. The second person in this entire world who had seemed like just a little more than a worm. Gone! His fascinating story that Gilgamesh would have gladly watched for the rest of his immortal life was concluded with a sickening anti-climax. An anti-climax he hadn’t even witnessed!

And this little boy had the audacity to not only survive where Kotomine had not, but to insult him to Gilgamesh’s _face_?

Death was too good for him.

And when the child demanded to know what they were to do about the Grail without Tohsaka… Gilgamesh has never felt more satisfaction in initiating a back-up plan. He took something from his pocket. A flick of his wrist.

Shinji screamed and screamed and _screamed_ , and Gilgamesh watched his form painfully bulge and contort and consume itself with a broad grin on his face.

Because _oh_ , how much pleasure Kotomine was feeling right now if somewhere, somehow, he could see this.


End file.
